Motorola Triumph for Virgin Mobile available for pre-order at Best Buy; $300 and shipping next month

For all the bleeding edge smartphones we cover on a near 24/7 basis thanks to our international staff, it’s the mid range devices that actually ship in the largest quantities and have the most fans. One upcoming handset has us really excited because it’s actually something we would enjoy using; say hello to the Motorola Triumph. Sure, it may not pack the latest dual core processor from Qualcomm or NVIDIA, and yea, it doesn’t support ultra high speed 4G networks, whether they be the HSPA+, WiMAX, or LTE variety, but the one thing the Triumph has going for it is that it ships with stock Android. No MotoBLUR, no operator garbage, just Android the way Google wants you to enjoy it, with a couple of applications sprinkled in and a nice wallpaper. We knew Virgin Mobile would be selling this thing at some point in the summer, but we had no pricing information or any specific dates … that is until now. According to Best Buy’s website the Triumph will ship between July 19 and July 26 and it’s going to cost you $300. That’s a steal if you ask us.

Now as for the network it’ll be using, Virgin Mobile is nothing more than a prepaid version of Sprint, so wherever you can get a Sprint signal, you’ll get Virgin Mobile connectivity as well. They’ve got various price plans that range from $25 per month for unlimited texting and web browsing with 300 minutes per month, to $60 per month for unlimited everything. It’s slightly more expensive than Boost Mobile, who has unlimited everything for $50 per month, and that includes taxes, but there’s no question that Virgin Mobile has a much better handset portfolio. If you really want to stretch your pennies, but don’t want to be stuck with an ancient handset, then Simple Mobile, which is a mobile virtual network operator using T-Mobile’s network, has an unlimited everything plan for $50 per month with the only catch being that you’re stuck with 2G data; $60 for 3G/4G support. What makes that option attractive is you can shove their SIM card into any device you like, even one of those fancy new unlocked iPhones.